It’s been a few hours since I got back from my first viewing and I wanted to let it settle a bit before posting. I considered taking more time to write a thoughful and detailed review, but most of my points have already been covered, and frankly, I don’t think the film deserves it.
I thought it was fairly boring and derivative overall. Abrams does what he’s best at: borrowing. Nothing original here. I rolled my eyes when I saw Death Star #3. I know a lot of people hate the prequels, but at least Lucas dared to tell us a story we hadn’t heard before (not in detail, anyway).
I like Kylo Ren. He occupies the space between Anakin and Vader; he’s more like what I was hoping to see Anakin become in ROTS. Less fearful and hateful, more arrogant and power-hungry. I don’t hate his saber. I see the side blades like the guards above the hilt on typical metal swords. They’re functional and provide him with an advantage (which he uses against Finn at one point). I fail to understand how someone as powerful as Ren could barely fend off two inexperienced saber wielders, despite his blaster injury.
Rey was mostly on point and I liked the portrayal of the character overall. Her sudden discovery and near-mastery of Jedi mind tricks was lame, however.
Finn…eh. It’s like they tried to make him the new Han (starts out self-centered, runs away from the fight, comes back to help save the day). Mostly he just came off as dopey, but I guess that could be a product of his upbringing/training.
I don’t have a problem with the way Han died because it was the completion of his character arc. I’m also okay with Luke walking away from the galaxy and the new fight; it probably weighed heavily on him knowing that he basically created the next Vader (out of his own nephew, no less) and he probably convinced himself that he was doing more harm than good by sticking around. Not seeing Han, Luke, and Leia reunited was a huge letdown for me, though.
And apparently Abrams heard that people hated all the politics and back story in the prequels, because TFA swings the pendulum in the opposite direction and explains nothing about the galaxy we now find ourselves in. I guess it’s not really a concern because it’s just ANH 2.0 anyway.
Overall, kind of a jumbled mess, and if these weren’t the Star Wars characters we know and love, I doubt we’d be seeing so many positive reviews. The only thing that makes me want to see Ep. VIII is to find out what’s up with Luke.
5 out of 10 for me. Didn’t hate it, but I have a backlog of films and TV shows I’d rather devote 2 hours to than watch it again.